| Brief History | Oceanview commenced operations as a hostel following the injection of funds for such accommodation that arose from the Constitutional amendments of 1967. It had previously been a ‘clinic’. Wilson and Robinson (1971) Aboriginal Hostels in Perth: A Comparative Survey.
Education and employment hostels were operated by or in association with the Native Welfare Department mostly from the mid to late 1960s and early 1970s but came under the administration of the Community Welfare Department from 1972. For notes on a general history of these facilities, see the section on Hostels at the beginning of Signposts.
Wilson and Robinson provided some historical and contemporary information about Oceanview in 1971:
“Apart from the large ‘College’ at Riverton, and its various rural and urban missions and hostels in Western Australia, the Pallottine Order administers a departmentally-owned hostel at Beach Street, Cottesloe [the Department referred to here is the Department of Native Welfare]. According to the matron of Oceanview, the building was originally a holiday home for a charitable organisation and subsequently a doctor’s clinic.
The events surrounding the handover of Oceanview to the Pallottines include considerable manoeuverings regarding the terms of the Agreement, a major point of disagreement concerned the question of maintenance. The Pallottines felt that they could accept only if the Department [of Native Welfare] undertook maintenance, as their solicitor pointed out, ‘…our client is to conduct this property on a non profit basis and any advantage accruing from its conduct and control wil be that received by the Western Australian Government. (Letter Messrs. Doyle & Kerr to the Commissioner of Native Welfare, 14.4.70; DNW 130/70.’ Unfortunately, complete details of the formal transactions involved in the Oceanview handover are not available as the Department’s Head Office filing system has ‘lost’ the relevant file….
The hostel had already been in operation since the 15th March 1970, and its first placements were four apprentices from Riverton.
The Pallottines have agreed to administer Departmental hostels contingent upon the level of autonomy given to them (a similarly operated Departmental hostel is managed by the Pallottines in Albany). [Pallottine Boys’ Hostel Albany, see entry]. As Father Tiernan, the hostel Superintendent, states ‘…this hostel is an experiment for us. Hostels usually have lots of problems. Especially with high turnover. We don’t, because I usually try to select. We are very discriminating.’ And, he elaborates, that he is proud of this discrimination ‘…I am proud that my own people (i.e. Australian-Europeans) only want the best next to them. So we must be selective.’ But, so far, he feels that problems involved at Oceanview will not encourage the Pallottines to extend their activities into other Departmentally-owned hostels. He complains of Departmental inefficiency and multiplicity of authority. ‘I would not take another one. Where a boy comes under twofold authority, he will start playing one against the other when it gets difficult. We don’t do any good anymore. A boy can’t be under two authorities. The Native Welfare office is only 8.30 to 5, and the child is only a name on a desk to be placed.’
The hostel has a potential capacity of fourteen, but prefers to restrict its numbers to between 8 and 10. Father Tiernan has overall control of Oceanview and the Albany hostel (including the Diocesan work in the South-West of the State). Oceanview is managed locally by a resident Australian-European layworker who acts as matron-in-charge….
[In terms of ongoing welfare] the working boys at Oceanview are involved in the Pallottine network. They make use of the Riverton facilities whenever possible. Father Tiernan is not only responsible for the initial selection and placement of residents, but he also assumes responsibility for securing apprenticeships and positions. When possible, he tries to make arrangements for apprenticeship/employment prior to placement, and this is one of the reasons given for resenting what he considers to be indiscriminate ‘dumping’ of unemployed residents by Departmental officers.” Wilson and Robinson (1971) Aboriginal Hostels in Perth: A Comparative Survey
In December 1972, the Pallottines relinquished their management of Oceanview.
By 1977, Oceanview was controlled by Bridgewater [see entry]. During that year, around seven girls and five boys were resident at Oceanview at any one time. “The use of Oceanview, a hostel controlled by Bridgewater, for teenage school children proved beneficial” (Annual Report of the Department for Community Welfare, 1977).
Oceanview “is primarily for teenage school children who have school problems and are awaiting more permanent placement…and the year’s population has remained close to 5 boys and 5 girls.” (Annual Report of the Department for Community Welfare, 1979).
The WELSTAT (welfare statistics) Collection of 1979 notes Oceanview as a ‘scattered group home’ (ie. “a family group home whose grounds do not adjoin those of another family group home, or other residential child care establishment, operated by the same enterprise.”) operated by the Department.
Oceanview became one of a new breed of services in the 1980s. In September 1983, Bridgewater amalgamated with the Walcott System to form a new system of residential care and community support. In January 1984, the new system was named the Community Support Hostels, and Bridgewater became its Administration Centre. The Community Support Hostels comprised Darlington Cottage, Oceanview, Stuart House, Tudor Lodge, Warralea Hostel, Kyewong Hostel, Medina Hostel, Warminda and the Bedford Park Hostel [see individual entries]. The role of the Community Support Hostels was to “provide skilled care for children for whom a more normal setting, such as an emergency foster home, is not available.” (Annual Report of the Department for Community Welfare, 1984).
By 1985, the Annual Report indicated there were seven Community Support Hostels in the Perth metropolitan area, and their individual roles and goals were “varied, complex and often quite different in nature.” However, the “basic aim” of the Community Support Hostel system was to “identify and understand problems being experienced [by the children admitted to them], then to provide support and direction towards re-establishing routine involvement in community activities.” At the same time, the hostel staff emphasised “behavioural stabilisation and training to increase the chances of success in activities involvement and subsequent placements.” (Annual Report of the Department for Community Services, 1985).
In 1987, it was reported that “children on arrest or remand who cannot return home” were also admitted to Community Support Hostels. (Annual Report of the Department for Community Services, 1987).
By 1995, Beach Street was being used as an “education facility” attached to the McCall Community Support Unit [see separate entry in Signposts for the McCall Centre]. (OHAC Cost Project, Department for Community Services, June 1995).
In addition to the entries mentioned above, the Pallottine Centre, Rossmoyne has its own entry in Signposts, and this should be consulted as it gives more information about the role and history of the Pallottines in residential child care. |